Reciprocal IVF allowed us both to play a part in welcoming our twins

After meeting on Facebook in 2021, and getting engaged in 2023, Hads and Magenta agreed that starting a family of their own would be the ‘icing on top of the cake’. With the help of TFP Wessex Fertility, the couple went on to have reciprocal IVF and later welcomed twin girls, Noa and Aria, in September 2025, making their dreams of parenthood a reality.

Hads & Magenta’s story

Having both recently gotten out of serious relationships, Hads, 30 and Magenta, 31, met on a Facebook forum in 2021, initially looking only for friendship. But a noticeable spark between them encouraged them to meet in person and the rest, as they say, is history.

“It’s now four years, a mortgage and two babies later!” beams Magenta.

For Hads, having children is something she was open minded about but it wasn’t necessarily a deal breaker.

“I always felt as though it would have been nice if it happened, but I’d just never met anyone I could see myself doing that with,” she admits.

Magenta, on the other hand, had always known she wanted to be a Mum and felt a strong pull to embark on this journey after meeting Hads.

“I had an abortion when I was 15 years old which of course was a really difficult experience but I fundamentally was not ready to be a parent at that point,” shares Magenta.

“When I was 21, I decided to donate my eggs as I liked the idea of helping another family in need. Unfortunately, I wasn’t eligible for donation as my AMH levels were too low so I was unable to fulfill that wish.”

Understanding that her fertility would only decline with age, when Magenta met Hads at the age of 26, she knew if they wanted to start a family then it was something they needed to act on soon.

“Because we knew the financials were taken care of, it meant we could be in control of our own timeline.”

With a lack of NHS funding for fertility treatment for the LGBTQIA+ community and stringent eligibility criteria for the funding that is available, navigating the journey to parenthood can often be overwhelming for same-sex couples.

Thankfully for Hads and Magenta, a fertility benefit available to them through Hads’ workplace would not only cover the cost of their treatment, but spare them from these challenges and the heartache that often comes with it.

“I think one of the reasons I didn’t necessarily feel any urgency to start a family is because I knew this benefit was available,” explains Hads. “It meant that we could focus on our treatment, but we also recognise that not every couple is as fortunate as us.”

The couple decided to act on their desire for a family in January 2024, excited by what the future may bring.

“You can never guarantee an outcome but at least we knew we’d have the same experience as everyone else.”

Through Hads’ workplace fertility benefit, the couple were given the option of three fertility clinics near to their home in Southampton. After doing their own research, the couple agreed that TFP Wessex Fertility was the best fit for them, for several reasons.

“We looked into all three options but TFP Wessex had by far the best reviews, patient stories and success rates,” says Magenta. “I went down a bit of a rabbit hole doing research, not just looking at Google reviews but also reviews of people’s experiences on Reddit. And what always stood out was how well people were being looked after.

“The statistics were important too, of course, but the actual care that people were receiving felt really important to us. You’re never guaranteed an outcome, no matter your circumstances, but if the level of care and experience is the same for everyone then you know they’re consistent and treat patients fairly.”

“We liked the idea of reciprocal IVF and knew that was our best way forward.”

With a natural curiosity for medical procedures and human biology, Magenta admits to being well informed about the couple’s options for conceiving a child, which included IUI, IVF and reciprocal IVF. From a young age, Hads knew that carrying a pregnancy wasn’t something she would feel comfortable with, whereas for Magenta, it was an experience she had always dreamed of. With this in mind, the couple agreed early on in their relationship that reciprocal IVF offered them both the best pathway to parenthood.

Hads and Magenta decided that they would both undergo a round of IVF to create embryos from both partners using the same sperm donor. But in searching for the ideal donor to help build their family, the couple became limited in their choices.

The couple were originally given just three months to complete their treatment through the workplace policy, which resulted in only one of TFP Fertility’s active sperm donors being a suitable match.

“Only one of the available sperm donors had had further genetic testing carried out. With all of the other options, we’d have had to have undergone further testing ourselves which we simply didn’t have time for,” explains Magenta.

Thankfully, the donor in question happened to meet a lot of the criteria the couple had in mind, sharing characteristics such as skin, hair and eye colour with both Magenta and Hads.

“It was fortunate really that we were both comfortable with the choice available to us, otherwise that could have held up our treatment massively,” says Hads.

“What was most important to us was that we had someone that shared enough of our characteristics that either of us could be out with our children and it not be an immediate thought that we weren’t their true parents” Magenta shares.

“They were able to tweak some of their processes to ensure we were both as comfortable as possible.”

With everything now in place, Hads and Magenta began their treatment within just a few days of one another in February 2024. Due to Hads’ fear of needles and Magenta being autistic, both partners experienced some anxiety when it came to certain aspects of their treatment. To the couple’s relief, the team at TFP Wessex Fertility was sympathetic to their concerns, making adjustments to their treatment plan to ensure both partners could make it through each stage with as little stress as possible.

“I’d never had a blood test before, so even that felt like a huge challenge for me,” confesses Hads. “All of the nurses were lovely though and allowed me to squeeze their hands to within an inch of their lives!”

“We were both quite nervous when it came to the egg retrieval procedure too,” adds Magenta. “But the team were more than happy to listen to what would make us most comfortable and allowed for both of us to be in the theatre with each other during the collection so we didn’t have to go through it alone.”

“If things had been different I think I would have arrived on the day and not been able to do it,” says Hads. “So without that kindness and understanding, we wouldn’t have the twins.”

“We decided that we wanted all of our children to be genetically related.”

At Hads’ egg retrieval, 23 eggs were collected from her ovaries. A few days later, the couple added eight more from Magenta. The eggs were fertilised by their donor sperm and left to grow into mature embryos over a five day period. By day five, Hads had 10 grade A embryos and Magenta had five of mixed quality.

The couple had always intended on doing a fresh embryo transfer, but in the days that followed her egg collection, Magenta came down with pneumonia, complicating their plans.

“It became quite stressful because of only having three months to complete treatment through our fertility benefit,” says Hads. “Thankfully, the TFP Wessex team were able to agree that we could extend this to a further 12 months, giving us time to do a frozen transfer later on.”

Following this, all 10 of Hads’ embryos were safely frozen and the couple made the difficult decision to discard of Magenta’s.

“Because we always intended for me to carry and for us to do reciprocal IVF, it made sense in more ways than one that it would be one of Hads’ embryos that was transferred,” explains Magenta.

“I didn’t necessarily want loads of kids but I knew I would have wanted more than one and we decided that if we did want to try again in the future then we would continue using Hads’ embryos so that all of our children were genetically related.”

“I was obviously very patient… and tested on day three!”

After getting engaged in Disneyland Paris in March 2024, the couple spent some time happily planning their dream wedding. By January 2025, they were back at TFP Wessex Fertility in preparation for their first embryo transfer.

“We don’t like to do things by halves!” jokes Magenta. “It was the week before my 30th birthday and we were getting married in the March so naturally we decided it was the best time to have a transfer!”

“It was a surreal experience to be completely truthful. Of course, we were excited but we were also trying to remain grounded,” admits Hads. “Knowing that we had nine other embryos offered a lot of reassurance and we felt extremely lucky to know that if it didn’t work, we’d be able to try again.”

Having been told to wait at least nine days post-transfer to take a pregnancy test, Magenta admits that the excitement got the best of her, and she tested on day three.

“You could see the faintest line which got stronger as the days went on,” she remembers. “I took a test every day until day eight or nine and it was so satisfying seeing the line get darker each time.”

The couple were over the moon to have fallen pregnant following their first transfer, an experience they agree was almost dreamlike. To everyone’s surprise, there would be more good news to celebrate when an early visibility scan discovered that they were expecting identical twins.

“I laughed, you cried!” says Hads.

“And that’s how most of our pregnancy went to be honest!” adds Magenta.

In September 2025, after a fairly seamless twin pregnancy, Hads and Magenta welcomed two healthy baby girls, Noa and Aria, at 35 weeks.

“They are our everything,” Magenta says. “We have this video that we filmed the night after our transfer and we’re both filled with such excitement, talking about how we now had our little seed. And then one seed became two seeds, and now they’re teammates.”

“We both recognise how extremely lucky we are to have had a fairly straightforward IVF journey,” expresses Hads. “We’ve been shown so much kindness throughout this journey that made such a difference to our experience.”

“We’re very much enjoying life as a family of four for the time being, but we know we’ll be in good hands if we ever want to try for a sibling for our girls.”